Currently, consumers are limited to cable television services based on their geographic location. In the past, cable television service providers received a monopoly for a particular area. In return for receiving the monopoly, a service provider would install cable infrastructure (e.g., receivers, local transmission stations, headends, distribution hubs, transmission lines, repeaters, routers, switches, etc.) throughout the geographic area. More recently, fiber optic television service providers have received geographic monopolies for installing fiber optic television/Internet infrastructure. As a result of these monopolies, consumers in a particular geographic location are limited to the only cable/fiber optic television provider in that area (e.g., Comcast®, Time Warner Cable®, Cox Communications®, Charter Communications®, Cablevision®, Verizon®, AT&T®, etc.).
Recently, television streaming media devices have become available to consumers. These devices enable consumers to stream television service received at their homes to any networked display device. As a result, a consumer can view their television service from any device just as though the consumer was watching the television service at their home. However, consumers are limited to streaming television services that are available at the location where the streaming media device is installed. For instance, a consumer with a streaming media device installed in a residence within Time Warner® territory is limited to streaming Time Warner® television service. There accordingly exists a need to provide consumers with an option to stream television service from any television service provider regardless of where the consumers live.